Guide · Takeoff
How to measure stairs for hybrid flooring
Stairs are a small part of a double storey quote by area and a large part by cost. They use more product per square metre than any floor, and the labour and nosing are priced on their own. Here is a simple, repeatable way to measure them from the plan.
The parts of a stair
- Tread: the part you stand on. Its depth front to back is called the going.
- Riser: the vertical face between treads.
- Nosing: the profile that finishes the front edge of each tread. With hybrid and laminate, a matching stair nosing is fixed to every step.
- Landing: a larger flat step where a stair turns or pauses.
- Box step: an open-sided bottom step, where the nosing returns around the side and down the drop as well as across the front.
Builder plans show stairs as a flight of lines with an arrow and a step count. The section drawings usually give the riser height and the going, and the floor plan gives the stair width.
Measure product per step, not stair area
Do not measure a stair as the rectangle it occupies on the plan. That rectangle is the plan view of the treads only. Each step also needs a riser and a nosing, and every one of them is cut from a full board.
A simple and widely used allowance is:
Standard step: step width × 0.5 m
Residential stairs commonly have a going of around 250 to 300 mm and a riser of around 170 to 190 mm. Together that is a little under half a metre, and 0.5 m is a round figure that covers the tread, the riser and the nosing overlap.
A landing-sized step is measured as its own width multiplied by its length plus 0.2 m for the riser. A 1.2 m wide landing that is 1.2 m long becomes 1.2 × (1.2 + 0.2) = 1.68 m².
Winder steps on a turning stair are wedge shaped. The safest approach is to measure each one at its widest point, like a landing step, because the cut pattern wastes more board than a straight tread.
Add a stair allowance before the normal waste
Cutting boards into strips for treads and risers produces offcuts that rarely fit the next step. Many contractors add a large allowance to the stair product only, often around 50%, and then add it to the floor total before the normal waste percentage. That keeps the order honest without inflating the waste on the flat floor. The waste percentage guide shows the full order of operations.
Price the steps and nosing as well
The product on the stairs is charged at your normal floor rate as part of the main area. The work of fitting each step and the nosing profile is priced separately. Two common ways:
- Per metre of step width: total the width of every step and multiply by a rate that covers steps and nosing. A 1.0 m wide flight of 14 steps is 14 m.
- Per step: a fixed price each, which suits contractors whose stairs are mostly the same width.
A box step usually needs extra nosing, for the return down the open side, and extra labour. Some contractors allow around 0.6 m of extra nosing and a fixed labour charge per box step, and adjust it when the design is unusual.
A worked example
Example only
The stair, the rates and the floor area below are made up to show the method.
A double storey house has a straight hybrid stair, 1.0 m wide, with 13 standard steps and one landing step that is 1.0 m long. The bottom step is open on one side, so it is a box step. The rest of the house has 71.24 m² of hybrid including allowances.
| Step | Figure |
|---|---|
| 13 standard steps, 1.0 m × 0.5 m each | 6.50 m² |
| Landing step, 1.0 × (1.0 + 0.2) | 1.20 m² |
| Stair product | 7.70 m² |
| Plus 50% stair allowance | 11.55 m² |
| Floor total including stairs, 71.24 + 11.55 | 82.79 m² |
| Plus 5% waste | 86.93 m² |
| Packs of 2.21 m², rounded up | 40 packs |
| Area bought, at $72 / m² | 88.40 m² · $6,364.80 |
| Steps and nosing: 14 steps × 1.0 m, plus 0.6 m for the box step, at $300 / m | 14.6 m · $4,380.00 |
| Box step labour | $200.00 |
Without the stair the same house needed 34 packs. The stair adds 6 packs of product, plus $4,580 of step, nosing and box step work. That is why a stair that is missed or under-measured hurts so much: it is a small part of the plan and a large part of the price.
Carpeted stairs
If the selections put carpet on the stairs, measure them differently. Carpet stairs are usually priced per staircase or per step, and the carpet itself is cut as strips along the roll. Check the selections carefully: a hybrid ground floor with carpet on the stairs and upstairs bedrooms is common, and the stair finish is easy to assume.
Questions to settle before you price
- Closed or open risers? A stair with open risers has no riser faces to cover, so each step needs less product, but the treads are often more exposed and the finish has to be clean on both edges.
- What are the treads made of? A concrete or timber stair that is ready for a floor finish is very different from one that needs packing or preparation first. If you have not seen it, exclude preparation and say so.
- Which nosing profile? Most hybrid and laminate ranges offer a matching stair nosing in the floor colour. Confirm it exists for the selected colour before you quote it.
- Who finishes the stringers? The sides of an open stair are usually painted or clad by others. Make the exclusion clear on the quote.
Things to check on the plan
- The step count on the plan matches the section drawing.
- Landings and winders are counted as their own steps, not as standard ones.
- Open sides are identified, so box steps are priced.
- The stair finish in the selections matches the floor above and below it, or the change is trimmed.
Outside Australia
In the US and Canada, stair work is often priced per step, and stair areas are measured in square feet. The method of measuring product per step and adding a stair allowance still applies.
How Squaro measures stairs
Squaro reads each flight from the plan with its finish, step width, step depth and number of steps, and counts open-sided bottom steps. Hard floor stairs get your stair allowance before the normal waste, and the steps and nosing are priced per metre of step width at your rate, with your box step nosing and labour added. Each flight shows where on the plan it was read, so you can check the count before the quote goes out.
Related reading
- Flooring waste percentage, and when to round up to packsChoosing a waste figure, applying it in the right order, and rounding to whole packs.
- Flooring trims and transitions at doorwaysFinding every opening that needs a trim, and pricing trims per item or per metre.
- How to quote flooring from builder plansThe full method, from the builder's pack to a priced quote, with a worked hybrid example.
- Flooring takeoff software that reads the builder's plansHow Squaro reads plans and selections and measures every space from the printed dimensions.
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